Rome: Empire of the Eagles

ISBN-13: 9780582784956 / Angielski / Twarda / 2008 / 378 str.

Neil Faulkner

Opis

The Roman Empire is widely admired as a model of civilisation. In this compelling new study Neil Faulkner argues that in fact, it was nothing more than a ruthless system of robbery and violence. War was used to enrich the state, the imperial ruling classes and favoured client groups. In the process millions of people were killed or enslaved. Within the empire the landowning elite creamed off the wealth of the countryside to pay taxes to the state and fund the towns and villas where they lived. The masses of people - slaves, serfs and poor peasants - were victims of a grand exploitation that made the empire possible. This system, riddled with tension and latent conflict, contained the seeds of its own eventual collapse.

Spis treści

List of maps and plates  Acknowledgements  Introduction  Note on ancient monetary values  Maps  Prologue  1. The making of an imperial city-state, c 750-367 BC  2. The rise of a superpower, 343-146 BC  3. The Roman revolution, 133-30 BC  4. The Pax Romana, 30 BC-AD161  5. The decline and fall of the Western Roman Empire  Timeline  References  Bibliographical notes  Index and glossary